though, after the first arrangement had been effected he
had given up the personal guard of the royal bedchamber to other
officers, reserving to himself only a general nightly superintendance;
and the cruel Johannes passed his nights under as good a defence as if
angels with flaming swords had guarded him. His office, however, daily
called the youth to the palace, and he could not but perceive that the
magnificent Gertrude often threw herself in his way. She evidently
loved the beautiful youth as only an unprincipled woman can love,--and
her passion had nothing to combat but the fear of the sultan of the
harem, whose discovery of the least infidelity would have brought
instant death upon the guilty. Yet so powerful was her passion that it
conquered even this fear.

At one of those intoxicating court festivals with which the king sought
to stupify himself and those about him, Alf was standing to take breath
after a brisk dance, with his hands behind him, when suddenly he felt a
warm soft pressure of his right hand, a piece of paper being
simultaneously slipped into it, and a moment afterwards the first queen
stepped forward from behind him, giving him a significant glance as she
passed. He left the room immediately, and by the nearest lamp in the
corridor read the following words:--

'An hour after midnight, in the upper passage on the left; the first
door.'

Hastening back to the dancing-hall, his glowing cheeks and triumphant
carriage immediately betrayed to the beauteous syren, that he had read
and comprehended her billet.

Meanwhile the midnight hour struck. Gertrude was suddenly attacked by a
headache and suffered her attendants to lead her to her chamber. The
king smilingly whispered a word to Eliza, which caused a flush to pass
over her cheeks, and which she answered with downcast eyes. The
assembly gradually departed, and Alf, lost in pleasing dreams,
proceeded to his dwelling.

He found the devoted little Clara yet patiently waiting for him,
occupying herself at the spinning wheel; her now constantly bright eyes
a little dimmed; but whether from late watching, or weeping, or from
both together, he could not exactly decide.

'I began to think you were not coming home tonight,' said the maiden in
a friendly tone, which yet had something of sadness in it.

'The dancing to-night continued unusually late,' replied Alf; casting a
glance at the mirror, and coming to the conclusion that he was right
worthy of t